[Article] DART line should be extended

[roamling]

Fingal Independent,
By Fergal MADDOCK
Wednesday September 23 2009

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/dart-line-should-be-extended-1893097.html

DART line should be extended

THE opportunity presented by the collapse of the railway line should be used to extend the DART line to Donabate and to create a walkway and cycle paths across the estuary.

Councillors have demanded that the issue be raised with Iarnród Éireann.

Speaking at the meeting, Mayor of Fingal Cllr Ciaran Byrne asked how confident could people be that that the restored viaduct would be safe, given the fact that in an inspection carried out the day prior to the incident, the bridge appeared safe.

He said: 'only by the grace of God, hundreds of people would have been drowned in the most horrible fashion.'

Cllr Gerry McGuire (Lab) said it was very fortunate that there were no fatalities. ' The repairs present an ideal opportunity to implement Fingal County Council's objective for a coastal walkway.

'For very little additional money we could get a coastal walkway and a cycle way as a gesture of goodwill. It could be done straight away. It is also an opportunity to electrify the railway to Donabate.'

Cllr Eoghan O'Brien (FF) said there was now an opportunity to deliver an objective of the Development Plan to provide the walkway and cycle paths between Malahide and Donabate. County Manager David O'Connor said he was behind everything the councillors had suggested.

' We are keeping a close eye on this and Iarnród Éireann are being extraordinarily co-operative.'

He said there could be an opportunity at short notice to progress these demands through a Part 8 procedure and he would inform councillors as it happened.

- Fergal MADDOCK

[Mark Gleeson]

More time waster politicans

1. No walkway is being built

2. Electrification can't be done without a plan and money

First priority is get the bridge fixed, anything else just slows things down

[weehamster]

Just to Donabate? Nowhere else. Just Donabate. What is so special about this place that every rail line has to go there? :cool:

These are the same gimps who want the Metro North to go there as well. According to them, it seems a waist that the termination of the line is in the middle of nowhere, so therefore it has to go to super Donabate. :rolleyes:

[chris]

Just to Donabate? Nowhere else. Just Donabate. What is so special about this place that every rail line has to go there? :cool:

These are the same gimps who want the Metro North to go there as well. According to them, it seems a waist that the termination of the line is in the middle of nowhere, so therefore it has to go to super Donabate. :rolleyes:

Em, it's obviously because the line between Malahide and Donabate is totally closed, whereas there are still limited services to Drogheda north of Donabate. Doesn't take a genius.

Re Metro North, of course it makes sense to extend the line to Donabate so that passengers can change for the Northern line instead of having to go through the city centre. Look at how most of the U-Bahn lines in Munich end or connect S-Bahn lines for example.

Also, you'd do damn well to think carefully before calling anyone a gimp again.

And it's 'waste' by the way.

[ThomasJ]

Em, it's obviously because the line between Malahide and Donabate is totally closed, whereas there are still limited services to Drogheda north of Donabate. Doesn't take a genius.

Re Metro North, of course it makes sense to extend the line to Donabate so that passengers can change for the Northern line instead of having to go through the city centre. Look at how most of the U-Bahn lines in Munich end or connect S-Bahn lines for example.

Also, you'd do damn well to think carefully before calling anyone a gimp again.

And it's 'waste' by the way.

I think Chris what weehamster meant is that it sounds a bit like self-interest with regards to both the DART and Metro (Greystones come to mind?). Does the population of donabate justify it getting two high capacity rail lines?

What he means is rather than looking after one station on the Northern line finish the whole damn line, and focus on completing the rest of the integrated DART lines 1 and 2.

the integration of the DART and metro lines north of city centre is a good but i would say Malahide would be a better integration point than Donabate.

[dermo88]

I recall back around 1996, there was an article in the Independent which proposed building a second link from Dublin City Centre, via Dublin Airport and Swords which would have linked into the Northern line near Balbriggan.

Considering the capacity constraints on the Northern line, and the current closure due to the Malahide bridge collapse, making Metro North a full 5'3" gauge heavy rail route should be another option, and that would allow DART to be split into Express services on the route via the Airport and Local services on the coastal route.

[comcor]

Fair enough, electrification isn't going to take place during this closure.

But is there any preliminary work that could be got out of the way? What about general repairs and maintenance on the closed stretch of line?

[Colm Moore]

Putting in the underground cabling and cable support foundations or even a track upgrade would be practical with the railway closed.

[ACustomer]

Does anyone out there not realise (a) the present disruption and just fixing the bridge is costing IE an absulute fortune; (b) budgets are tight - wake up, there is a crisis in the public finances; (c) we will be lucky to escape significant line closures.

If Co Councillors had their way, Limerick-Waterford would close just to release money to keep Ennis-Athenry open! Muppets, the lot of them!

[essoII]

I think Chris what weehamster meant is that it sounds a bit like self-interest with regards to both the DART and Metro (Greystones come to mind?).


Greystones population: 14,569 (2006, cso figure).
Donabate population: 4,499 (2006).


although the greystones link was political self interest, I think the DART extension to Greystones was justifiable, especially with growth predictions of 20,000 residents by 2020..

[Mark Hennessy]

Allowing for the provision of Metro to Donabate now makes sense so that in 25-30 years (insert century for metro actually being completed), there is a clear right of way and proper plan to build along the route to link with the northern line as per the observation about U-bahn and S-bahn.

As for the electrification and walkway, great ideas, there's not a penny for them right now.

[Colm Moore]

http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/Amended%20census2006_%20Volume%201%20Pop%20Classif ied%20by%20Area.pdfDonabate town 5,499
Portrane 1,532
Rural area ?
ED Total 7,600That doesn't include people from inland areas that use Donabate. And of course, it isn't purely about population, its about how many use the train.

Donabate is a sensible point at which MN can meet the railway and is designed for just such an extension.